Re: What R U Reading?

Re: What R U Reading?

I'm currently read Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk, so far so good. The first couple chapters really kick you where it hurts with some over the top descriptions of disembowelment and perverse sexual acts, which I found pretty humourous. It's definitely a subversive book, often deriding our current society and the way most modern people thinks. It seems like a pretty nihilistic book. The main premise is based loosely off the creation of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (ie: bunch of writers locked together on a writers retreat gone wrong).

Re: What R U Reading?

It took me quite awhile to finish Stephen LaBerge's Exploring The World of Lucid Dreaming, but I've finished it this evening. It would have been a great book if I had just been getting into the subject of lucid dreaming, but because I already knew quite a bit, the information came off as redundant. Still, I did learn some interesting things and it motivated me to start my dream journal again. That says something!

Next up..."Programming The Human Biocomputer" by John C. Lilly.Now THIS has gotta be fascinating...can't wait.

Re: What R U Reading?

Programming The Human Biocomputer turned out to be a fascinating text. I love all the detailed metaphors that the author presents his readers...subtle, but striking at times. I recommend it for those simultaneously interested in the fields of science and metaphysics.

And now..."A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking.Cosmological classic!

Re: What R U Reading?

I haven't decided what the next novel I want to pick up yet is, so I started reading Harry Shannon's Host of Shadows, a short story anthology. The first story is pretty damn good, dark and poignant. Looking forward to reading more.

Re: What R U Reading?

A Brief History of Time was a solid read. The information is put into a fairly easy-to-understand format with a down-to-earth feel to it. Not saying that anyone who reads it will come away with a large understanding of cosmological concepts and quantum mechanics, but everyone who gives it a try should at least come away with a solid understanding of the basic outline of the concepts contained within the book. Definitely worth a read, whether for introductory purposes (to physics, scientific theory history, cosmology, etc) or for people already seasoned in these amazingly interesting topics.

Next up...True Hallucinations: Being an Account of the Author's Extraordinary Adventures in the Devil's Paradise by Terence Mckenna.

Re: What R U Reading?

MoonRaven wrote:

Is that book part of 'A Brief History of' series?

True Hallucinations? Nah, that books is about psychedelic mushrooms (amoung other hallucinogens) that were found in the Amazon by a group of botanists/anthropologists. It's a strange, weird read (that includes UFOs & transdimensional doorways, might I add!).

Stephen Hawking did write "A Briefer History of Time", which is a sequal to the popular, "A Brief History of Time", which I read last week.

Re: What R U Reading?

Man, it took me like 3 weeks to read this- This Book is Full of Spiders, the sequel to John Dies at the End. It took 20 days to read the first 2/3rds of the book (~190 pages), and one night to finish it.

There were flashbacks and forwards that really didn't do much except muddle the story up. I think Wong just tried to get a little too fancy on his sophomore effort. Once he finished off that stuff, and got to straight storytelling (last 1/3rd) is was great.

I loved John Dies at the End, but this was flat for way too long. It does advance the mythos a bit, but I hope he does a third book that has more in common with his first book.

Re: What R U Reading?

Thanks for the review Az, i've been meaning to check out John Dies at the End (but my list grows ever longer). So is This Book is Full of Spiders directly tied in to John Dies at the End or are they both completely separate books? It's also good for authors to experiment, though sometimes they fall flat, like in this case perhaps, but ultimately I think it will make him a better writer.

Re: What R U Reading?

The Creature wrote:

MoonRaven wrote:

Is that book part of 'A Brief History of' series?

True Hallucinations? Nah, that books is about psychedelic mushrooms (amoung other hallucinogens) that were found in the Amazon by a group of botanists/anthropologists. It's a strange, weird read (that includes UFOs & transdimensional doorways, might I add!).

Stephen Hawking did write "A Briefer History of Time", which is a sequal to the popular, "A Brief History of Time", which I read last week.

Re: What R U Reading?

A friend of mine has done DMT a couple of times, and really enjoys it. I had read a book about it a few years back myself, but haven't tried it. That said it is produced naturally in the pineal gland and is perhaps the key chemical to explain dreaming.

Re: What R U Reading?

Theli wrote:

A friend of mine has done DMT a couple of times, and really enjoys it. I had read a book about it a few years back myself, but haven't tried it. That said it is produced naturally in the pineal gland and is perhaps the key chemical to explain dreaming.

Indeed, it's an incredibly fascinating topic! I've never taken DMT, but I may consider doing so once I'm in my mid-twenties and feel that I am able to handle the experience that it offers. And yep, Dr. Rick Strassman came up with the theory of dimethyltryptamine being directly responsible for dream imagery. His book, "DMT: The Spirit Molecule" is one of the best books about hallucinogens that I have ever laid my hands on. It's incredibly captivating and the clinical research experiments that he conducted in the 1990's with DMT is very in-depth. The book I'm reading now is about the cousin molecule to DMT (that being, 5-methoxy-dimethytryptamine), which, from what I have gathered from the reports, is an even stronger hallucinogen than the regular DMT.

Edit - Perhaps the book you were referring to was "The Spirit Molecule"?